The scheme is yet to get full acceptance from the paying public.
The railways' big money-spinner — selling of tickets at dynamic prices — also called the premium pricing policy, is all set to become bigger and wider as the railways believes the scheme is working well. Unfortunately for passengers, it means more initiatives like the CST-Ernakulam and CST-Thirunelveli premium special trains by Central Railway (CR) which ran almost empty in the month of March.
On Western Railway (WR), the first zone which ran a premium train on the Mumbai-Delhi route, the numbers coming in are good enough for them to believe that in the weeks to come there will be more premium trains.
Statistics made available to dna by WR show that four of its premium train routes — Mumbai to Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Delhi and Jaipur — are showing almost 100 per cent occupancy on most days and some days even going beyond the total number of seats because of the RAC mechanism where one seat is divided among two people.
"It shows that even till the last moment tickets are available for the public and that is leading to elimination of touts from the system. Why would anyone give extra to the tout and still travel in fear of being caught when he can actually buy a ticket on the premium train and travel properly," said Sharat Chandrayan, chief spokesperson, WR.
However, the scheme is yet to get full acceptance from the paying public. "I am unable to understand the way the price of a premium ticket is calculated, which makes me feel that the whole scheme is exploitative. It is better if there is a fixed appreciation on the ticket with the passage of time so that the passenger knows what he is paying," said Bhandup cresident Manish Chaturvedi.
As reported earlier by dna, passenger associations like the All-Thane Malayalee Association as well as the Western Indian Passenger Association have been writing letters to the railway ministry demanding withdrawal of the premium pricing scheme.
"The fact that some of these trains are going with seats empty is absolutely unpardonable when there is such a massive waiting list for other trains on the route. An empty seat just means that despite such massive demand, the price is so high that the seat remains unsold," said Chaturvedi.
WR's premium trains in the past fortnight:
* 22913 Mumbai Central-Delhi premium (total seats 980)
1/5 - 801 seats sold
3/5 - 929
6/5 - 938
8/5 - 1025
* 09728 Bandra Terminus-Jaipur premium (822 seats)
27/4 - 951
4/5 - 954
* 09015 Bandra - Gorakhpur premium (1196 seats)
26/4 - 1205
3/5 - 1130
10/5 - 925
* 09013 Bandra-Lukcnow premium (887 seats)
23/4 - 889
30/4 - 890
7/5 - 887
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